Dear Fellow Explorers,
Welcome to the 52nd Those Stories newsletter, a year’s worth. It has been a valuable year of experimenting and learning for me. I hope that a few of the ideas and stories have resonated with you, but I will be the first to admit that I have been the primary benefactor through year one.
Doing the work, having a schedule, and publishing were the keys. The plan allowed me to obtain feedback from others and also gauge how I felt about the work. The constraints of an article and video every week allowed me the ability to experiment.
As you know, this year has been chaotic for many reasons. s If I’d picked a single path instead of committing to both an article and video each week, I probably would have stopped publishing when I hit one of the many dead ends I found this year.
Instead of thinking about what’s next, I have become a proponent for experiments, specifically the most petite experiments you can develop. Because once an idea has been documented on paper or in video form, you’ll find out if it’s something worth pursuing or not. You can’t think your way into that answer or out of it.
When you have a body of work, you can go back and see what you want to improve. Or at least you can go back and ask yourself, “Why did I do a five-week newsletter series on New Year’s Resolutions/Declarations?”, or “I miss wearing different hats in my videos.”
The one thing I don’t have that I was hoping for is a single direction. I have been reminded constantly that most unifying theories happen with hindsight, not foresight. What binds all of my work together? The answer changes frequently, and I don’t get any work done when I worry about it too much.
Therefore, the next experiments await. Can I build and sustain an audience (or multiple audiences)? This question is a big challenge, and I don’t know the answer. I have new theories and ideas, but spreading the word will be difficult. I don’t believe in big flashy marketing campaign to build an audience. I think it works best when audiences are built as relationships, but relationships require trust on both sides.
Those Stories is now entering its next phase, in what I hope will better serve you and a growing audience. While I’m still planning to continue Those Stories, this newsletter will evolve to keep up on new directions and experiments. I’m currently working on new projects that will appear in future newsletters.